


After the Carols

by DizzyDrea



Category: JAG
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-18
Updated: 2010-01-18
Packaged: 2017-10-27 03:56:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/291368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DizzyDrea/pseuds/DizzyDrea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The ending to the Christmas 2002 episode that should have been written. What happened after dinner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After the Carols

**Author's Note:**

> I have never written a post-ep fic, but then I’ve never seen an episode that cried out for one more than this one. Thanks to DPB and crew for putting together the finest holiday episode yet.
> 
> JAG and all its particulars is the property of Donald P. Belisarius, Belisarius Productions, Paramount Television, NBC Productions and a lot of other people who aren't me. I'm doing this for fun and for practice. Mostly for fun.

~o~

“Here you are,” Mac called from the doorway of the Roberts’ den. “I was beginning to wonder if I had imagined you at dinner.”

Commander Harmon Rabb Jr. smiled wanely from his place in front of the fireplace. As Lt. Colonel Sarah “Mac” Mackenzie closed the door and crossed the room, she noticed that he looked a bit forlorn, like the lost little boy she sometimes still saw in him.

“You okay?” she asked when she finally stepped in front of him.

He looked at her in the firelight, admiring the way her skin glowed and her eyes radiated. He could imagine getting lost in the peace he saw there, hoping to carry some of that warmth back to his own soul.

“I thought after I found out what happened to my father that this feeling would go away,” he stated quietly.

Mac didn’t need to ask what the feeling was, or what had brought the thought to his mind. She reached out and ran her hand over his arm, hoping to transmit some comfort through her hand into him.

“Does it ever go away?” he asked, as though he hadn’t noticed her actions.

Mac didn’t have an answer for him, but deep inside she knew he didn’t really need one. He’d carried this burden all his life, and would probably continue to carry it until he died. It didn’t matter that there had been nothing he could do to help his father, or that he had died years before Harm had found out what happened to him.

“Did you visit him tonight?” she asked quietly.

“Tom—Admiral Boone—and I went before the party. He’d never visited on Christmas Eve before. I could see it was hard on him.” Harm took a deep breath and tried another smile, this one a little brighter. “We met a young Lieutenant there, visiting the Wall while he was in Washington.”

“Did he know someone there?” Mac wanted to know.

“No,” Harm smiled at the memory of Lieutenant Clarence’s enthusiasm. “He was in town visiting a sick friend and came to pay his respects.”

Mac smiled and squeezed Harm’s arm. Her gaze traveled from the place where her hand rested on his arm to his chest where his gold wings should have been. Reaching up to touch the now-empty spot, she turned questioning eyes to Harm.

“Lieutenant Clarence—the young man I mentioned—skipped out on his graduation ceremony to come see his friend at Bethesda,” Harm began to explain. “I offered my wings as a replacement. The Admiral pinned them on.”

“A moment he’ll never forget, I’m sure,” Mac commented, noticing the heaviness in his face despite the smile. “And you’ll be replacing those soon, I’m sure.”

Harm gave a rueful laugh and shook his head. “Maybe not.”

Mac frowned at this. Clearly she didn’t understand that cryptic remark, and said as much.

“The Cod we were supposed to take today snapped its tailhook on landing. We had to con the CAG into letting us take a Tomcat that was due to rotate back to New Jersey. He’s still mad at me for ditching the last one. Seems it was his plane. So he made us promise not to damage it.”

“So far I don’t see the problem. You arrived here safe, so the plane must be on the ground in one piece.”

“We hit a weather balloon inbound while we were flying through some cloud cover trying to help out a C-130 that had called for a hand-hold. The elevators suffered some damage, but I was able to right the plane and help the transport in.”

“Oh, Harm,” Mac instantly understood. “You think the CAG is going to try to have your flight status revoked.”

Harm shrugged. “Maybe it’s time I give that part of my life up.”

Mac grasped his arm and shook him gently until he looked directly into her eyes. “Harm, flying is in your blood. You can’t give it up. I know you. You’ll be miserable if you don’t fight this.”

Harm reached out and ran his hands up Mac’s arms until they rested on her shoulders, a look of wonder in his eyes. He hadn’t realized until that moment that she did understand him, and was probably the only person who truly did.

“I don’t tell you often enough how important you are to me, do I?”

Mac looked a little confused at the change in subject, but didn’t say anything, hoping his raw honesty would continue. He’d begun baring his soul the moment she walked into the room, and she didn’t want it to stop.

“You are the most important person in my life, and I don’t tell you that as often as I should. I’m not sure when that happened, but not even finding out I have a brother changed that.”

He reached up then and brushed the hair away from her forehead with one finger and placed a gentle kiss on the exposed skin. “My heart does funny things when you walk into the room. Why is that?”

“I don’t know, but mine has been doing the same thing for a long time now,” Mac returned, wonder now showing in her eyes.

“I know that Christmas is a magic time, and that this moment is made of that magic, but I don’t want us to forget this after the holidays are just a memory.”

“I don’t think I could forget this moment,” Mac told him honestly.

“There’s mistletoe up there, you know,” Harm said, a slight tease in his voice.

Mac looked up at the ceiling above them and, sure enough, there was a sprig of mistletoe hanging right above the fireplace.

“Harriet’s doing, no doubt.”

“No doubt,” Harm echoed, still gazing into Mac’s face. When she turned to look back at him, he said, “May I?”

At Mac’s barely perceptible nod, Harm lowered his face to hers, his lips barely brushing hers, tasting the new territory before coming back for more. His lips returned to hers, taking in the taste and the feel, caressing her until she thought she would melt.

When they finally parted, Harm gazed down into her eyes and said “Merry Christmas, my Sarah.”

“Oh, Harm,” Mac sighed. “I think this will be the merriest one yet.”

~Finis


End file.
